The New Deal Program

The New Deal Program

The

1920's

was

a

decade

often

referred

to

a

‘

the

roaring

twenties';

a

time

when

successful

businessmen

were

national heroes,

land

values

were

booming

and

the

hems

on

women's

skirts

were getting shorter than ever before! This was a time when the traditional values of rural America

were challenged - women were gaining employment, voting and driving cars. It was a time when a

new

type

of

urban

centre

arose;

one

based

on

production,

industrial

technology

and

massed

population. The average American was busy buying automobiles and household appliances, and

speculating in the stock market, where big money could be made. Those appliances were bought

on

credit,

however.

The

imbalance

between

the

rich

and

the

poor,

with

0.1

percent

of

society

earning the same total income as 42 percent, combined with production of more and more goods

and rising personal debt, could not be sustained.

On Black Tuesday, 29 October 1929, the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression,

the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. It spread from the United

States

to

the

rest

of

the

world,

lasting from

the

end

of

1929

until

the

early

1940s.

Banks failed,

businesses

closed,

and

more

than

15

million

Americans

(one-quarter

of

the

workforce)

became

unemployed.

The country fell into a depression (economically and psychologically), peaking in the winter of 1932,

with

citizens

living

on

the

streets

in

‘

shanty-towns'

and

surviving

off

government

rations.

The

unemployment brought on by the Depression caused self-blame and self- doubt. Men were harder

hit psychologically than women, with men usable to provide for their families. The percentage of

women working increased and children took on more responsibilities, sometimes finding work when

their parents could not.

Yet the depression was not the only disaster to strike

–

so too did the most devastating weather

event in American history. The drought hit first in the eastern part of the country in 1930, moving

toward the west in 1931, turning the Great Plains into a desert by 1934 and peaking in the summer

of

1936

setting

high

temperature

records.

Most

significantly

affected

were

the

farming

states

of

Northern

Texas,

Oklahoma,

Kansas,

and

Nebraska

(an area

which

was

to

become know

as

the

Dust Bowl) with irregular, dry, hot weather. Farm fields were turned to dust as the dry soil was lifted

by the wind causing regular dust storms.

When the drought and dust storms showed no signs of letting up, many people abandoned their

land. Others would have stayed but were forced out when they lost their land in bank foreclosures.

Left

with

nothing,

they

were

driven

to

find

hope

for

a

better

life,

travelling

from

older,

drought

stricken eastern states to the rich and abundant western state of sunny California (

‘

the land of milk

and honey'). In all, one- quarter of the population left, packing everything they owned into their cars

and

trucks,

and

headed

west

in

an

exodus

which

represents

the

largest

migration

in

American

history. By 1940, 2.5 million people had moved out of the Plains states; of those, 200 000 moved to

California.

The

New Deal

was a series of economic programs enacted in the

United States

between 1933 and

1936. They involved presidential executive orders or laws passed by

Congress

during the first term

of President

Franklin D. Roosevelt

. The programs were in response to the

Great Depression

, and

focused

on

what

historians call

the

Rs

Relief,

Recovery,

and

Reform.

That is, Relief

for

the

unemployed

and

poor;

Recovery

of

the

economy

to

normal

levels;

and

Reform

of

the

financial

system to prevent a repeat depression.

Relief

Public works

Public Works Administration Project:

Bonneville Dam

.

To

prime

the

pump

and

cut

unemployment,

the

NIRA

created

the

Public

Works

Administration

(PWA), a major program of public works, which organised and provided funds for the building of

useful

works

such

as

government

buildings,

airports,

hospitals,

schools,

roads,

bridges,

and

1933 to 1935 PWA spent $$3.3 billion with private companies to build 34,599 projects,

many of them quite large.

Under

Roosevelt,

many

unemployed

persons

were

put

to

work

on

a

wide

range

of

government

financed

public

works

projects,

building

bridges,

airports,

dams,

post

offices,

courthouses,

and

thousands of kilometres of road. Through reforestation and flood control, they reclaimed millions of

hectares of soil from erosion and devastation. As noted by one authority, Roosevelt

’

s New Deal

[

Farm and rural programs

Pumping water by hand from sole water supply in this section of

Wilder, Tennessee

(

Tennessee Valley

Authority

, 1942).

Many rural people lived in severe poverty, especially in the South. Major programs addressed to

their needs included the

Resettlement Administration

(RA), the

Rural Electrification Administration

(REA), rural welfare projects sponsored by the WPA, NYA, Forest Service and

Civilian Conservation

Corps

(CCC),

including

school

lunches,

building

new

schools,

opening

roads

in

remote

areas,

reforestation,

and

purchase

of

marginal

lands

to

enlarge

national

forests.

In

1933,

the

Administration

launched

the

Tennessee

Valley

Authority

,

a

project

involving

dam

construction

planning on an unprecedented scale in order to curb flooding, generate electricity, and modernize

the very poor farms in the

Tennessee Valley

region of the Southern United States.

Recovery

NRA

Main article:

National Recovery Administration